It's March! 3 months into the year and pretty soon, we'll be back home for our mid-year visit. Time sure is fun when you're having flies... teehee.
What was February like?... a hurly-burly of activities and a lot of people around, a couple of health scares regarding loved ones, a few sad stories and thankfully more funny ones, got re-acquainted with a cousin I haven't seen since 'Rock Lobster' became a hit and was played non-stop to my bleeding ears, gained a new friend, Papa's been to Japan and brought me home some wasabe biscuits which tastes great until the flavor hits your nose big time, started a new hobby, gained a few pounds which I'm in the planning stage of losing... all in all, it was cool (interpretation: glad it's over... teehee).
We started the month with a movie binge yet again, like we did last January.
About Schmidt
I like this movie A lot! The story is wonderfully easy and you can go with the flow with quiet anticipation, knowing there won't be tensed surprises along the way. The comedy is witty and natural. Jack Nicholson is simply great... sprawling through emotions like the waves of the sea, flowing and uninterrupted... desperation, resignation, a hint of hope, curiousity, picking at possibilities, loneliness, self-disgust, and most of all, the feeling that at last, he's done something right in his life.
There are two lines I like most in the movie.
The first one is by the character of Nicholson, Warren Schimidt, when he spent the night by the lake, looking up to the stars, trying to talk to his dead wife... who in life, he almost despised. He said, "Have I been the man you always wanted to be with?"
It makes me think, sometimes we become so self-righteous when it comes to our spouses, especially when we think we've done everything we possibly can to do what we're expected (and what we expect ourselves) to do as husbands and as wives. But sometimes we get so caught up with these expectations that we fail to reach out to our partners and see what they really need. Sometimes, when everything is so calm and quiet on the homefront, we unconsciously lead ourselves to believe that our spouses have no issues to gripe about, and we retire comfortably with the knowledge that they are happily satisfied... and so we blissfully focus ourselves on jobs, and businesses and whatever else. At worse, we may even develop some resentment at our spouse's happiness while in our eyes, we're the poor sacrificing souls. And then something happens that makes us realize we haven't done everything. It's quite a blow when this realization comes with the discovery that if our spouses looked happy and satisfied at all, the satisfaction has been had elsewhere. We may ask why... after all we've done. But then, maybe we should also ask ourselves... where have we been?
The second line I like was delivered by Hope Davis, playing the character of 'Jeannie,' daughter to old man Schmidt. She said, when Schmidt eventually got to talk to her and tried to convince her (right at the porch of her mother-in-law-to-be's house) that marrying her fiancee would be a wrong thing to do..."Oh, so now you have an opinion about my life... after all these years."
Often, parents fail to realize (in time) that children will grow up, with or without them. Children may forget the times you didn't hold them, or sit them on your laps, or treated them out for ice-cream on a Sunday, or stayed in bed with them when they were sick, or listened to them tell the story of how they smacked their classmate who was a big bad bully, or looked at their artwork... but then, they may end up forgetting altogether.
It is sad that the only human connection Schmidt ever got, but needed all along, came from a foster child he wrote and sent $22 a month to... on the other part of the world.
Chicago
I'm a bit disappointed... no, as a matter of fact, I am so disappointed with this movie... I know, I know... it won awards but so what?
Catherine Zeta-Jones was a natural... it was a pleasure to see her moves. Renee Zellweger, however, almost got me nervous in some of her numbers... I had a vague feeling she wouldn't pull it through. Richard Gere, much as I like him, was so stiff... oh, okay... he did quite well in his solo tap dance number.
Well, I don't know. I just feel it's nicer to watch stuff like this live... on stage... maybe even Broadway. When you make it a movie, you get lost in all the razzle-dazzle and the story plays a second bit part in the whole thing. Tell me... what's the difference between this and an Indian production?... except maybe that Gere and the two women spoke English?
What was February like?... a hurly-burly of activities and a lot of people around, a couple of health scares regarding loved ones, a few sad stories and thankfully more funny ones, got re-acquainted with a cousin I haven't seen since 'Rock Lobster' became a hit and was played non-stop to my bleeding ears, gained a new friend, Papa's been to Japan and brought me home some wasabe biscuits which tastes great until the flavor hits your nose big time, started a new hobby, gained a few pounds which I'm in the planning stage of losing... all in all, it was cool (interpretation: glad it's over... teehee).
We started the month with a movie binge yet again, like we did last January.
About Schmidt
I like this movie A lot! The story is wonderfully easy and you can go with the flow with quiet anticipation, knowing there won't be tensed surprises along the way. The comedy is witty and natural. Jack Nicholson is simply great... sprawling through emotions like the waves of the sea, flowing and uninterrupted... desperation, resignation, a hint of hope, curiousity, picking at possibilities, loneliness, self-disgust, and most of all, the feeling that at last, he's done something right in his life.
There are two lines I like most in the movie.
The first one is by the character of Nicholson, Warren Schimidt, when he spent the night by the lake, looking up to the stars, trying to talk to his dead wife... who in life, he almost despised. He said, "Have I been the man you always wanted to be with?"
It makes me think, sometimes we become so self-righteous when it comes to our spouses, especially when we think we've done everything we possibly can to do what we're expected (and what we expect ourselves) to do as husbands and as wives. But sometimes we get so caught up with these expectations that we fail to reach out to our partners and see what they really need. Sometimes, when everything is so calm and quiet on the homefront, we unconsciously lead ourselves to believe that our spouses have no issues to gripe about, and we retire comfortably with the knowledge that they are happily satisfied... and so we blissfully focus ourselves on jobs, and businesses and whatever else. At worse, we may even develop some resentment at our spouse's happiness while in our eyes, we're the poor sacrificing souls. And then something happens that makes us realize we haven't done everything. It's quite a blow when this realization comes with the discovery that if our spouses looked happy and satisfied at all, the satisfaction has been had elsewhere. We may ask why... after all we've done. But then, maybe we should also ask ourselves... where have we been?
The second line I like was delivered by Hope Davis, playing the character of 'Jeannie,' daughter to old man Schmidt. She said, when Schmidt eventually got to talk to her and tried to convince her (right at the porch of her mother-in-law-to-be's house) that marrying her fiancee would be a wrong thing to do..."Oh, so now you have an opinion about my life... after all these years."
Often, parents fail to realize (in time) that children will grow up, with or without them. Children may forget the times you didn't hold them, or sit them on your laps, or treated them out for ice-cream on a Sunday, or stayed in bed with them when they were sick, or listened to them tell the story of how they smacked their classmate who was a big bad bully, or looked at their artwork... but then, they may end up forgetting altogether.
It is sad that the only human connection Schmidt ever got, but needed all along, came from a foster child he wrote and sent $22 a month to... on the other part of the world.
Chicago
I'm a bit disappointed... no, as a matter of fact, I am so disappointed with this movie... I know, I know... it won awards but so what?
Catherine Zeta-Jones was a natural... it was a pleasure to see her moves. Renee Zellweger, however, almost got me nervous in some of her numbers... I had a vague feeling she wouldn't pull it through. Richard Gere, much as I like him, was so stiff... oh, okay... he did quite well in his solo tap dance number.
Well, I don't know. I just feel it's nicer to watch stuff like this live... on stage... maybe even Broadway. When you make it a movie, you get lost in all the razzle-dazzle and the story plays a second bit part in the whole thing. Tell me... what's the difference between this and an Indian production?... except maybe that Gere and the two women spoke English?
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